Monday, February 23, 2009

Assuming it does warm up enough that my hands don't stiffen,

got a fair amount to do today, some of which I flat refuse to do when I can't properly hold onto things. Among others, drilling. Years ago, for stitching in heavy or stiff leather, I borrowed the idea of drilling the holes instead of using an awl or whatever. I made up a long, tapered 'bit' of a piece of music wire for some leather, and for the heavier stuff I often use a 1/16" drill bit. Works very well, but you have to be very careful to keep things lined up to keep the stitching straight, which brings me back to stiff hands; not gonna do it if I have trouble holding things in place, which cold hands do not help with.

And something else to set up: Dad's old sizer/luber developed a problem and he bought a new one. We dug around online and found some ideas, and it looks like have the old one repaired and he gave it to me. So I need to find some long bolts and figure where and how to mount it so I can take it off the bench when not in use. Having this is both good & bad: good in that I can run stuff through without waiting to visit; bad in that up to now been a good time to sit & talk, while we ran a bunch of bullets through the press.

Ah well, I need to look at the news and get my blood pressure up for the morning. Ah, corrupt politicians, always good for that. Dodd having little bits & pieces come out more, which is good that it is coming out; bad that he got away with this garbage for so long. And Rangel, of course, is still screwing with our lives. I just love the line Republicans feel they can do business with him, and that he’d just be replaced by another Democrat anyway, so why make a big deal about his numerous ethics problems? Too many politicians spending too much time together and too damn much time in DC; so being a crooked politician just doesn't seem to bother them anymore in far too many cases. Term limits, anyone?

Oh, this is just bloody wonderful.The Obama administration's decision to join the planning of the U.N.'s Durban II "anti-racism" conference has just taken a new twist: cover-up. On Friday, State Department officials and a member of the American Durban II delegation claimed the United States had worked actively to oppose efforts to brand Israel as racist in the committee drafting a Durban II declaration. The trouble is that they didn't.

The Feb. 20 State Department press release says the U.S. delegation in Geneva "outline[d] our concerns with the current outcome document" and in particular "our strong reservations about the direction of the conference, as the draft document singles out Israel for criticism." One member of the delegation told The Washington Post: "The administration is pushing back against efforts to brand Israel as racist in this conference." In fact, tucked away in a Geneva hall with few observers, the U.S. had done just the opposite. The U.S. delegates had made no objection to a new proposal to nail Israel in an anti-racism manifesto that makes no other country-specific claims....It is impossible to argue that their silence was unintended. Over the course of the week's negotiations the American delegation had objected to a number of specific proposals. They had no trouble declaring "we share reservations on this paragraph," in the context of a demand to criminalize profiling. They "called for the deletion" of provisions undermining free speech like the suggestion to "take firm action against negative stereotyping of religions and defamation of religious personalities, holy books, scriptures and symbols."

Their silence when it came to Israel was, therefore, deafening. It also had the very concrete result of not placing the Palestinian paragraph in dispute, and the diplomatic rule of thumb is that paragraphs that have not been flagged as controversial cannot be reopened for discussion, as negotiations finalize an end product.So while these UN clowns are trying to set it up as if 'palistinian' is a race, President Barack Lightworker The Obama's people do this:Negotiators from the European Union suggested on Wednesday a new provision to "condemn without reservation any denial of the Holocaust and urges all states to reject denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full, or in part, or any activities to this end." Iran--whose president is a Holocaust-denier--immediately objected and insisted that the proposal be "bracketed" or put in dispute. The move blocked the adoption of the proposal and ensured another battle over the reality of the Holocaust in April--at these supposedly "anti-racism" meetings. After Iran objected, the chair looked around the room, expecting a response. He said: "Is there any delegation wishing to comment on this new proposal by the European Union? It doesn't seem the case. We move on." U.S. delegates said nothing, even after the prompt.Yeah, Jimmy Carter on speed: suck up to dictators and terrorist regimes and crap on someone who's actually on our side. Just bloody wonderful. First Obama 'apologizes' for the US being so unfeeling toward moslems(no mention of aid after disasters, etc., as that would mess up the apology), now this; I don't know whether to think he's sucking up to someone, paying someone off or just on the other side.

Ah, and of course Sen. John Effing Kerry is involved in things, while claiming he didn't know the letter was from Hamas, etc. Wonderful.

Ok, I'd heard about Dodd opening his big mouth(like Schumer)and causing some big problems, here's more specifics: WASHINGTON - Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd said banks may have to be nationalized for "a short time" to help lenders survive the worst economic slump in 75 years.

The Obama administration yesterday said a "privately held" banking system is the "correct way to go" and House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank said nationalization ought "to be avoided."

Senator Jon Kyl, the second-ranking Republican and a member of the finance committee, agreed with Frank, saying nationalizing US banks is "out of the question" and isn't going to happen.When the trouble caused and the screaming is enough to cause Barney Fannie Mae Frank to say something like that, it was bad and loud.

And, again, in the name of saving us, the politicians screw things up even more.That, in turn, has prompted manufacturers to spread the word to dealers and service shops to pull the youth-sized motorcycles off showroom floors and to cease shipments of about three dozen parts, including batteries, wheel assemblies and brakes, deemed by the federal government to contain too much lead."Gasp, there is LEAD in BATTERIES?!? Horrors, we must ACT!" Friggin' morons.

Maybe we ought to deny that the Crusades occurred, too? I mean after all, there are even fewer people alive today that can testify to their actual occurrence, and the physical evidence is just as ambiguous as that for the Holocaust in eastern Europe.

E-mail me

at elmtreeforge at att point net

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling